In Reverse
by Ace Clover
Summary: One thing led to another, she knew this. She just didn't know that from one call she could change a stranger into best friend.


**Disclaimer: **Masashi Kishimoto owns Naruto. The song here is Avril Lavinge's Smile.

* * *

_You know that I'm a crazy bitch!_

_I do what I want when I feel like it_

Haruno Sakura looked up from her book when she realized her phone was ringing. Glancing around, she found her phone on top of her green bed. She walked up to her bed and took her phone.

'_Hm? An unknown number…?_' Shrugging, she pressed the green button on her phone, "Hello?"

For a while there was no one replied to her question, only the sound of his or her breathing could be heard. Annoyed, she was about to hang up when suddenly a voice rang out from her phone.

"…Will you hear my story?" A male voice spoke from her phone. She thought this was a prank call and had half a mind to hang up, but she has nothing better to do. So she answered, "Sure."

There was a pause from the other side and for a while there was only silence. '_Maybe he was surprised I agreed to this_,' stifling a laugh, she waited for the speaker to begin his story.

"I had a girlfriend," he began. _'Had? So they broke up…_' she thought, but didn't interrupt. "She thought I was being selfish."

When he didn't continue his story, she prompted, "How so?"

"…I gave her a present for our six months anniversary. But she didn't give me anything." A pause. "Then a few days later is her birthday. Because I bought her something before, I didn't buy anything for her birthday."

"You thought she will take your present for both anniversary _and _birthday present." Sakura said knowingly. Even though she couldn't see him, she knew he was nodding. As though realizing that she couldn't see him, he said, "Yes."

She heard him huffed into the phone and continued his story, "She was furious. Few days later she broke up with me," his voice trailed over, like he was remembering the memory of that day.

As he sounded so preoccupied with his memory, she used that time to digest what she had just heard. After contemplating for a moment, she finally said, "Why are you telling me this?" She could feel his surprise through the phone, so she explained, "Why not one of your friends?"

She waited patiently as a _hmm _sound rumbled from the phone.

"I read in a book, that sometimes a stranger could give better advice than acquaintances," he revealed at last. '_True enough, I guess.' _Because sometimes friends can be biased when giving advice. '_And besides, from what I gathered, he's a socially awkward person,' _she thought fleetingly.

So she gave him the advice. She carefully omitted parts that could make her biased in the advice. It was hard since she only heard his part of the story, but she managed. After she finished, she waited for his response.

"…Thank you," it was a genuine and heartfelt statement that made her heart fluttered. Internally she beat herself, '_Dammit! Why do I feel like this? I haven't even met this man!' _She shook her head to get rid of those silly thoughts. "Miss…? Are you okay?" The stranger's voice relieved her from her stupor as she realized she had been ignoring the man for quite a while.

"I-I'm sorry! I'm fine, thank you," she said quickly. Then the man replied in quiet tone, "Then I must say good bye, Miss." She felt saddened by the fact that the possibility they talked like this again was low. It's weird since she had only known this man for a few minutes.

"Yes…bye," and then the only thing she heard was the beeping of her phone, signaling the stranger had already hung up. After she pushed the red button on her phone, she slapped herself, "Okay! Time to get back to real life, Sakura!" And so she was up and about busying herself.

…

…

…

"UGH! The nerve of that – that _asshole_!" Sakura stomped her way to her room, while grumbling curses for the said asshole. Her cheeks puffed up and red, her eyebrows furrowed and her green eyes blazed in fury.

She plopped herself on her bed and stared at the ceiling, "I want to talk to someone about this…but who?" she sighed deeply, "I feel that everyone I know will support _him_." Sakura scrolled through her contacts in her phone to find someone, _anyone, _that will listen to her.

Her finger stopped scrolling when she got to the 'S' section. Her eyes fixed at one name, 'Stranger', and thought about their conversation a week ago. Her thumb was hovering the green button on her phone, ready to make a call.

After she took a deep breath, she pressed the button and waited as it rang through. '_Here goes nothing,_' she thought as she heard the stranger picked up the phone.

"Hello…? Miss…?" '_He remembers me!' _she thought happily.

"A-ah yes, this is me. I want to talk to you again," she stuttered and before he could assume anything, she added, "Strangers give best advice after all." She smiled as she finished that sentence.

She waited as he digests her words. Then he asked, "What do you want to talk about?"

"Well, it will be very long if I tell you the whole story so-"

"It's okay. I have time to spare."

After a moment of hesitation, she began her story. She explained from the start with gusto. She even made some gestures and imitated some voices. Sakura ranted and dumped all of her frustration on the stranger. Through all that, said man only listened intently without cutting her off. Even though Sakura couldn't see him, she knew he was listening.

Sakura was out of breath when she finished her story. She waited for his response patiently. When he gave her his insight of the situation, she was really glad she decided to tell him her story. It was like he knew what to tell her to make her feel better. She wanted to talk more with him.

"Hey," she murmured, "Can I talk to you about random things? Since we - we don't know anything about each other."

"Yeah, sure." With that answer, her mood was uplifted even more. So she told him random things about herself - her favorite color, hobbies, even favorite ice cream flavors. In return he also told her things about himself, and now she knew about his past, goal in life, and other things.

It feels like they knew each other for a long time. Even her bestfriend never knew some of the things she told this stranger. It's weird, but she felt that she could trust him with her secrets.

Then one day a thought hit her, "Hey, why don't we meet up at the town?" It just occurred to her that she didn't even know his name, even though she knew his secrets. "I want to meet you," she grinned even though she knew he couldn't see her.

There was a pause while he pondered that. After what felt like forever he finally replied, "Okay." They set up the time and place, since Sakura wanted to meet the man today. They were also deciding what kind of outfits they would wear, to make it easy in recognizing each other. While she dressed up, thousands of thoughts running through her mind simultaneously. '_What if he is ugly? What if he is a fat old dude? What if he is in a gang? What if-' _she cut that thoughts and decided, '_Doesn't matter. He is kind and a good listener. I won't judge him by his looks or his social status.'_

So Sakura went out of her house and set straight for a particular ice cream parlor. It was the place they both decided as a place to meet, since that particular brand had only one parlor in this city. She arrived at the place after taking one bus.

She glanced around the place. It was packed with people and she had a hard time distinguishing every person to find one man with vague clothes description. A hand touched upon her shoulder and she tensed, only to see a man fitted the description she was given.

She smiled at the man, '_It seems I worry needlessly_.' He was pale and his ink black hair only seemed to high-light that paleness. He had eyes with color in the same shade as his hair. All in all, the man in front of her was attractive.

She offered the man her right hand, "I'm Haruno Sakura," she grinned. The man took her offered hand and shook it.

"I am…Sai,"

…

…

…

That day she changed one of her contacts' name from 'Stranger' to 'Sai'. She had giggled when she told him this. When she was asked what she found funny, she had said:

"It's just that…our relationship was built in reverse."


End file.
